Consequences and Choices

When do we add a consequence for non-compliance or bad behaviour? My dog is just being stubborn/naughty/disobedient!

We believe really strongly in building a solid foundation of clearly understood obedience in all dogs. This is why our residential training programs all focus on the fundamentals of obedience on leash before we do anything else.

All of this foundation work must be in place and the dog must KNOW the commands before you consider insisting on compliance or adding any consequences. Too many people add a consequence for an undesirable behaviour or non-compliance before the dog understands what he/she is supposed to do. Please don’t do that, it’s not cool!

This is the dog equivalent of me walking into your home and speaking Spanish to you (when you don’t speak Spanish) then admonishing you for failing to respond to me when I’ve tried to communicate! Not fair!

Sure there are naughty, disobedient, stubborn and wilful dogs out there, but they’re not in the majority. Sometimes they’ve just been allowed to make too many bad choices of their own and that’s become a habit.

Think about what options you can block and avenues you can shut down before you go to corrections for non compliance.